Share this @internewscast.com
Canadian immigration officials have said they were ‘surprised’ that New York City Mayor Eric Adams has begun bussing migrants into their country.
Quebec immigration minister Christine Fréchette called on her nation to crackdown on an unofficial border crossing south of Montreal that migrants are entering into from New York after being transported there by Adams’ program, the BBC reports.
The controversial program sees National Guard soldiers at the Big Apple’s Port Authority bus terminal handing out free tickets to a shuttle bound for the northern border.
Fréchette also urged Canadian officials to speed up talks in renegotiating the Safe Third Country Agreement, which requires migrants to make asylum claim in the first country they enter.
The Canadian immigration official told reporters on Monday that at the center of the issue was the need to ‘solve the problem of Roxham Road,’ referring to the unofficial border site between New York and Montreal.
Quebec immigration minister Christine Fréchette (left) said it was ‘surprising’ to learn that NYC Mayor Eric Adams (right) was bussing migrants bound for Canada
The controversial program gives migrants free tickets to Plattsburg, just south of the border and known as a destination for illegal entry into Canada. Migrants ride a bus bound for the housing center set up at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
The area sees tens of thousands of migrants crossing illegally every year, with nearly 4,700 people entering Canada through the site last December alone, the CBC reports.
Adams’ bussing program would only add to that as the New York City shuttle drops immigrants off at Plattsburgh.
The city is home to the Plattsburgh Cares group, which give out free information on how migrants can take a short taxi ride to Roxham Road and seek asylum in Canada.
Because Roxham Road is not an official border crossing site, it bypasses the Safe Third Country Agreement, meaning migrants can claim Canada as the first country they’ve arrived in when seeking asylum.
‘I think it makes the urgency of the situation even more apparent,’ Fréchette said of cracking down on the crossing site and updating the agreement.
Meanwhile, Adams has said he’s only bussing the migrants as a means to help deliver them to their preferred location, the same reasoning used by states near the southern border to transport the immigrants to New York City.
More than 43,000 asylum seekers have flooded the Big Apple since last spring, leading the city to set up emergency shelters at hotels while constructing mass housing for the migrants.
‘Those who are seeking to go somewhere else, not that we’re pushing or forcing, if they’re seeking to go somewhere else, we are helping in the re-ticketing process,’ Adams told Fox News about his program, a partnership with the Catholic Charities group.
‘We found that people had other destinations, but they were being compelled only to come to New York City, and we are assisting in interviewing those who seek to go somewhere else.
‘Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream.’
More than 43,000 asylum seekers have come to New York City in the past year, which many of the new arrivals choosing to camp on the streets than go to city shelters
Adams claims some of the migrants want to go to Canada, so he launched the new bussing program in a partnership with Catholic Charities
Rather than going along with others to the Red Hook district shelter (pictured), some migrants are taking up the city’s offer to travel to the northern border
Some of the migrants taking up the city’s offer told The Post they were heading to Canada because they felt it would be more welcoming for them and provide better opportunities than the United States.
One of those migrants participating in the re-ticketing plan was Raymond Peña, a Venezuelan who left NYC early Sunday morning.
‘The military gave me and my family free bus tickets,’ he told The Post. ‘I am going to Canada for a better quality of life for my family.’
Those buses travel as far north as Plattsburgh – just shy of the Canadian border – where local van and taxi services bring them the rest of the way and drop them where Canadian police can gather them.
‘There’s gotta be 100 people a day,’ driver Tyler Tambini, 23, told The Post. ‘I do this all day. They get dropped off and I take them the rest of the way.’
The service Tambini drives for charges up to $50 to transport individuals, and families for $90.
Migrants get dropped steps from the Canadian border, where they cross and are apprehended by Canadian police.
The migrants are then taken to the immigration offices St. Bernard De Lacolle and go through the process of claiming asylum.
Migrants bundle up against the winter cold outside the Watson Hotel in Manhattan on February 1, refusing to take shuttles to the Brooklyn housing unit which they condemned as ill-equipped to meet basic needs
Venezuelans board a bus bound for the migrant housing center at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
Canadian President Justin Trudeau has been outspoken about accepting migrants
Numerous migrants traveling to Canada reported being disgusted by the conditions they faced in NYC, where they felt at risk from homeless people and drug users.
‘I wanted to live in New York because I thought it would be a better future for my daughters,’ said 33-year-old Peruvian Susy Sanchez Solzarno, who was traveling with her family.
‘But as the days went by, I saw insecurity, many homeless people, many people who shout and are disrespectful, and many people on drugs.’
‘I am going to Canada for the safety and future of my girls,’ she told The Post. ‘I only ask God that everything goes well and that Canada is not like the United States.’
Manuel Rodon, a 26-year-old from Venezuela, said he was kicked out of the Times Square hotel where he’d initially been housed and sent to a shelter where he felt unsafe.
‘A lot of the Americans used drugs there,’ Rodon said. ‘I feel like Canada will be safer. It is a much quieter country than America.’
He said he knew eight other Venezuelans who had all successfully migrated to Canada.
‘They all got free tickets, too. It was the same process,’ he said. ‘It took them three days through customs. They are all safe. They live in Montreal.’
He and others said they learned about the ease of migrating to Canada through social media.
‘It is very difficult to get papers in America,’ Rodon said. ‘I need to work, so I am going to Canada.’
Buses of migrants have been arriving in NYC since fall when Republican governors, primarily Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, began sending asylum seekers from the border to largely Democratic-leaning cities.
